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Saturday, September 5, 2009

My own little disco ball

My manicure du jour (well, du “weekend”) is really a fun little number! As you may recall, I purchased three glitters from China Glaze recently, and though I had been planning on another color for this weekend, I thought one of them would be good to wear because a couple of my nails have been feeling kind of weak lately, and glitter’s good for reinforcement.

I decided on Nova (#832) over Atlantis for the simple reason that there have already been two swatches (that I know of) of the latter at Body and Soul (note the new address!) and at Dizzy Nails (whom I learned of through Inbal).

And here’s what I got:

Check out this fun little gem!

As you can see, this is a clear base packed with gorgeous (as Brooke would say) Glittah! (A rare example of when a flash shot way out performs a sunshine shot!) This large glitter really does have personality; it looks fiery orange, medium blue, grass green, bright yellow, or blood red, depending on how you rotate it. Here are a few blurry shots that hopefully show off the colors.

This look was accomplished in using four coats. I can tell you already I am not looking forward to the removal in a few days time, and not just because this is so fun to look at for once. But for now, I say it’s kinda worth it!

As is true for most glitters in a clear base, there will be a few bald spots as you start polishing. In fact, if you wanted to wear this as a top coat over another base color you certainly could – it’s somewhat dense, but not to the point where you couldn’t see the color underneath. I bet this would look great over an inky blue. Kind of like a heavy, thicker-glittered version of Starry Starry Night. Mmmmmm. Heavy, thicker-glittered version of Starry Starry Night.

Er, um, ahem!

Anyhoo, it took me, as I said, about four coats to get it to where I didn’t see any little bald spots. However, once I looked back at the photos, I saw them. I’m sure you can see them easily in the shots above. The good news is, there’s so much sparkling going on, it’s hard to notice!

I put on one coat of Poshe, and when I felt my nails a little later, they still felt a bit bumpy. Remembering wixology’s comment on my post about Yello-Out, where she said that it can slightly brighten a shade, I decided to used that as my final coat:

Maybe it’s only psychological, but I do feel like there is an ever-so-slight additional “pop” to these now.

Another cool thing about glitters is that they are really, really, reallyeasy to work with! Whatever got slopped up onto my skin (which, as you can see from the first set of photos, isn’t a whole lot) came off within a few hours of just plain daily living. And any bald areas that I found (which took a lot of up-close inspection, as it’s hard to see through all of those sparkles!), I simply covered up with an additional daub of polish.

I haven’t yet noticed any tipwear, but that would be remedied by the same method. Anyone who has any doubts about their application skills should definitely go to glitters!

The other benefit to them, as I alluded to before, is that due to the nature of having all of these little stiff square bits in your polish helps make the whole nail become a little stiffer than might be normal for you. And believe it or not, I have extremely weak nails. Using various tricks of the trade has caused them to improve., but still it felt like time for some extra reinforcements.

The downside to glitters, though, is that they can be a major PITA to remove. Using felt, I’ve been led to understand, makes things go a LOT smoother, but otherwise, you need a lot of patience, and a bit of elbow grease to get the dang things removed. Be warned!

The other potential downside to these is THEY ARE ABOUT AS SUBTLE AS THIS!!!!!! If you aren’t comfortable wearing, for example, neons, then these really wouldn’t be your cup of tea, with the possible exception of as a top coat, as I mentioned before. These nails WILL get noticed, as I learned from the very first person I saw after I had it on, who wanted to know what it was I had on my nails. (Believe it or not, that’s maybe only about the second or third time I’ve been asked that, and the first time from a person I didn’t know.)

Then there’s the term my friend used. “Those are stripper nails!” Nothing negative was meant by it, but all the same, that’s not an adjective I’m filing away for my own personal description of this varnish.

But, as I say, if you prefer subtle nails, this just ain’t the way to go.

For me, though, they’re fun, and because of them I’ve had ABBA songs running in my head for two days now. I know for a lot of people out there that would be torture, but I came to love ABBA after first seeing what has since become one of my favorite movies, Muriel’s Wedding. So while I think of “Dancing Queen” and “Super Troopers,” I think I’ll regale you with this snippet that includes “Waterloo.”

Pinkginger - Yeah, I thought it was pretty funny, myself! And the glitter is unlike any others I have!

Mary - They sure are! On both the "glittery" and "pain" part - lol!

Nicole - Me too! I haven't seen MM yet - my mom saw the stage production and couldn't stop gushing about it. I don't know if she ever saw the movie, but she listened to its soundtrack all the time! Is it worth watching?

kittyluvscolor - I think you should get this, you'd enjoy it so much, I'm sure!

beautyjudy - Thank you! I took this off today, and vowed that I will buy felt before I put one of these on again!

Love those glittah nails! Stripper nails, no way! Just absolutely fun is more like it. I loved Muriel's Wedding. I really enjoyed this clip. I love rock music and didn't listen to Abba that much. I loved Mama Mia which I didn't think I would. My favortie song is Dancing Queen. I think your nails look beautiful. To me glittah is worth the aggravation taking it off. You have gorgeous Abba nails!